This meditation technique is to see the connection between food,
Climate change,
Sustainability and taking personal actions.
I invite you to sit comfortably.
You can use a chair or sit on the floor,
Whatever works for you now.
Gently stretch your back upwards vertically and if possible,
Let not your back touch your chair.
Keep your spine as erect as you can,
Perpendicular to the ground.
Now gently close your eyes.
Take care not to squeeze the eyelids.
Place your hands on your lap,
Intertwining the fingers.
Let the edges of your thumbs touch each other gently.
Take a deep,
Slow breath,
Breathing in first from your stomach and then from your lungs.
Feel the air first filling the bottom of your lungs,
Pushing your stomach away from your spine.
Continue to breathe in.
Now,
Feel the air in the middle and top of your lungs till your neck.
And feel the ribcage expand to accommodate the air.
Fill the entire lungs with air.
Now,
Without holding the breath in your lungs,
Breathe out slowly and steadily.
Breathe out from the top,
Mid and bottom of your lungs.
First in,
Last out.
As you breathe out,
Feel your ribcage collapsing gently and your stomach getting back towards the spine.
Repeat this breathing in,
Breathing out a few more times.
Slowly,
Steadily and without any unnecessary body movements.
Use only as much body movements as required for the air to go in,
Out smoothly into your lungs.
With every breath,
Auto-suggest and relax your body.
Relax from the toes till your waist.
Relax from the waist till your neck.
Relax from the neck to the head.
Relax your cheeks,
Smile.
Relax your eyes.
If your eyebrows are knotted,
Auto-suggest and relax.
Relax.
Relax.
Relax.
Now slowly,
Let us shift our attention to the last meal you ate.
Recall as many details as you can of what you ate.
Take a minute to review.
What was the food like?
What colours do you remember?
What smells can you recollect?
What tastes can you recollect?
Sweet,
Sour,
Salty,
Spicy,
Astringent,
Bitter.
How did it feel when you ate?
Now slowly zoom out and extrapolate to understand the value chain of the simple meal that you ate.
You may not know the answers to some questions.
Still,
Answer these questions in your mind as reasonably as you can,
As truthfully as you can.
No one can judge your thoughts.
You are in a safe place.
Who served you the meal?
Who was involved in cooking the meal in the kitchen?
Who brought the raw material to the kitchen?
How was it grown?
Who grew the food?
Where did it come from?
Which place?
How may have it been transported?
How many miles did your meal ingredients travel from the farm to reach your plate?
Importantly,
Ask yourself now.
Were there only humans working to make the food?
Or was nature involved as well?
Can you recognize the subtle yet important contribution of nature to make the last meal that you ate?
Now slowly shift your focus deeper.
This will get a bit more interesting,
But do ask these questions.
What were the raw materials to the last meal you ate?
What were the raw materials to those raw materials?
And go on deeper and deeper till you come to the most basic elements.
You will now hit a wall and can't go any further.
Those are the true,
Original,
Raw material of the last meal you just ate.
Ask yourself.
Can you recognize sunshine,
Water,
Earth,
Space and air as the basic five raw materials?
Acknowledge that what you ate was just a transformation of these basic raw materials.
These five basic elements were the cause for all you ate.
Now ask yourself.
What would have happened if any of these links in the value chain broke?
What would happen if the bees and earthworms were extinct?
Ask yourself.
What would have happened to your meal if the cause,
The five elements were somehow not working together?
What would happen if the earth were not to support?
If it were not fertile?
What would happen if there were floods or famine?
What would happen if the sun did not shine?
What would happen if there were no space to grow anything?
Now ask yourself again.
Your last meal was separate than you before you ate.
You can differentiate yourself from what was on your plate.
But you cannot separate out what you ate from yourself after you have eaten your meal.
What you ate became you,
A part of you.
You are nothing but a unique modification of those very fundamental elements,
Earth,
Water,
Sunshine,
Air and space.
The uniqueness does not mean different.
It just means a different combination.
Your body is just a localized,
Dense instance of these universal five fundamental elements that made your last meal.
When you recognize this unity between your body and the five basic elements,
Ask yourself the very fundamental question.
Will I ever consciously damage my own body or will I take care of my body?
If the inner voice says,
I will take care of it,
Then ask yourself,
How can I take care of the five elements as well,
Both within my body and without my body?
What can I do that would restore the balance between me and this universe that is just different unique combinations of the very five same elements?
It becomes your responsibility to take care of the fundamental elements,
Just as you take care of your body.
Both are not different,
Yet look different.
Acknowledge the silent power of these fundamental elements.
Acknowledge the possibility of potential breakage of the value chain by your actions.
Acknowledge your part of playing a big role in sustaining the harmony between yourself and the basic elements.
Ask yourself,
How does a simple act of eating only what I need help me,
My body and the environment?
How does a simple act of not wasting any food help the environment,
Help others who face food scarcity?
With gratitude and humility,
Thank the entire value chain,
Nature and humans for having contributed to the successful meal that you ate last,
Right from the basic elements to the person who served you.
Recognize your personal responsibility and privilege to take action and contribute.
Stay with your eyes closed for a minute.
Rub your palms,
Feeling the warmth.
Gently cup your eyes with your hands.
Gently open your eyes with your hands covering them.
